Part 52 (2/2)
”I think--I think--Iras has her in her chaulped Char on the steps of the palace, which led directly to the private royal harbor Directly overhead the gulls were flying, white against the sky
”Let's go for a boat ride,” I suddenly said It was too fine to be indoors today ”No, not sailing, souorous Where we can lie and look at the colors of the sea and sky” I had all e, a small sailboat, a shaded raft, a replica of a Pharaonic boat That I had co on the water was a tribute to my determination of will--perhaps my most characteristic, and valuable, trait Will can serve when talent, inspiration, and even luck desert us But ill deserts us, then we are dooer ”I have never been on the Pharaonic boat,” she hinted ”The one with the lotus-bud prow”
”Then that is e shall take”
We descended the wide, gently curving flight of marble steps--like a theater whose rows of seats overlooked waves On the seabed below I could see the rocks and bright aneh the clear, clean water Far out, the ocean was breaking against the base of the Lighthouse, sending up coluht as an ostrich plume
I must have a sister-mosaic made for the Venus one, I decided at thatat now, and the blue of the seas will match It h summer
The boats were kept in readiness at all ti while the captain made adjustplank and hopped onto the deck
”Oh!” She gave a gasp ”Is this real?”
Joining her, I answered ”If you old, yes”
”I meant only that it is fantastic, in the truest sense of the word”
”It is meant to satisfy a Pharaoh I have been assured that they really floated about like this” Yes, they had lain on couches in the shaded cedarwoocf deck pavilion; they had been cooled by long-handled jeweled fans, should the winds not oblige; they had run their hands over gold-leafed rails ”Come” I led her to the pavilion, where we sank down on the cushi+ons
A servitor, dressed in the kilt, collar-necklace, and headcovering of ancient ti us cool drinks
We cast off, the rowers pulling silently with their silver-tipped oars, and rocked gently on the ater
The sea, the sea hat ht the riches of the world to our doors, and gave us power I htaway As it ere powerless to defend ourselves except with the Roions that Caesar had posted here But should they leave--or turn against us at the bidding of some Roman ht day see so unsecured
My spirits had soared for the first ti back to their trees, they swooped and fell again Was I never to be free of this shaded mantle that descended on me? Just as Caesar's love for me had enveloped me, now its absence, and his loss, provided an equally dark cloak that wrapped itself around ht of day faded into night
I stood watching the stars come out Venus had appeared first, of course, but one by one the others becaned places in the constellations Just so we had stood watching together, here on the roof garden Just so he had named Orion, his favorite constellation, and recounted the story
The sky now seemed hard and empty in spite of all the fao torooers awaited ures blurred beforeof the oil lamps
Always, even as my mind became absorbed in the additions and subtractions, there lurked that other other, that melancholy, just beyond the line of my vision So I was not unhappy when a servitor announced that Epaphroditus had come to discuss some business It was a relief to be interrupted
He was all apologies about the late hour
”It does notdownWork hours never cease And the evening is a good tiht, there were people walking the streets, singing, laughing, drinking, while their Queen was shut up in a rooers
”Then we are two of a kind” He s, but she enjoys the fruits of it”
It was the first time he had ever permitted a personal remark to pass his lips So he was married Did he have children? But I would wait for him to tell me
”I have the final reports about the contents of the three nearehouses, built to replace those destroyed in the fire We have installed shelves that are narrower, so that no inventory will be hidden It also makes rat control easier” He handed me the papers proudly
I waited It seeht He could have sent the papers at any ti I heard froht ”Yes?”
”This is not official, merely what this man heard But it seeo is anyone's guess Caesar's heir has come to Rome to claim his inheritance, and has been rebuffed by Antony It seems Antony treated him with rudeness and tried to scare him away, because he did not want to admit that he--Antony--had spent most of Caesar's money”
The money! Yes, Antony had obtained it from Calpurnia, to keep it safe froone away He has enlisted Cicero on his behalf, and isa ruckus Antony will have to come to ter in Rome”
Antony should have known better than to treat Octavian with conteer and less secure someone is, the more he has to be flattered ”So they are preoccupied with the chaos there?”
”For now,” said Epaphroditus ”But will the assassins eventually flee to the east and set theer”
”I wish they would, so we could kill theions here? What if they took coht of that,” I said ”What Egypt needs now is a strong navy I must start to build one up And I can see that the treasury will permit it”
He smiled, pleased and surprised ”Good”
”I would like to discuss the procure timbers with you soon,” I said ”I know you deal with the Syrians”
”Indeed”
He seema--this cultivated y, with his two names
”Madaive me if I speak out of turn May I help?”
I was so startled I could barely keep the surprise off rateful
”Not unless you can turn time backward, erase events that have already happened” But I said it gently, wistfully
”That is beyond man's power,” he said ”Only God could do that, and he does not But he does provide consolation Our scriptures are full of questions that we put to him, and he answers in verse Betrayal, and loss--they are all there”
”Teachlike a child before a particularly erudite tutor
”In our main book of poetry, there is one that says, 'Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his naainst me do they devise my hurt Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of ainst me' ”
Yes That was exactly the way it had been, with Caesar and his ”friend”
” Tor it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it But it was thou, a uide, and my familiar friend' ”